Talking to an animal at Brew at the Zoo.

Photo courtesy of Ed Needham's friend Uwe, as snapped at Saturday's Brew at the Zoo. As Ed notes, the captioning possibilities are endless:

"Now that the animals are talking to me, I think it's time to slow down a bit on the beer."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. Fill out an application. I'll hire you."

Thanks for the photo, Uwe and Ed. It has made my day.

Perhaps not the best promo for Brew at the Zoo: "Bears eat man at beer festival."

BELGRADE, Serbia (Reuters) -- A 23-year old Serb was found dead and half-eaten in the bear cage of Belgrade Zoo at the weekend during the annual beer festival.

The man was found naked, with his clothes lying intact inside the cage. Two adult bears, Masha and Misha, had dragged the body to their feeding corner and reacted angrily when keepers tried to recover it.

"There's a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage," zoo director Vuk Bojovic told Reuters.

Local media reported that police found several mobile phones inside the cage, as well as bricks, stones and beer cans.

(Thanks to Frank for the link: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/20/bear.death.reut/index.html?iref=mpstoryview)

Flip side: "Why Are You So Incredibly Drunk?"

As a landlocked fan of longstanding, I subscribe to Oakland Athletics e-mail updates at www.sfgate.com, the web site of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Here's a recent non-baseball article closer to home.

Why Are You So Incredibly Drunk? What is it about public displays of extreme, staggering wastedness? Is it fun?, by Mark Morford (Friday, May 25, 2007).